Improvement in harvester cutting apparatus



UNITED PATENT OEEcE.

oYRENUs WHEELER, JR., or AUBURN, NEW YORK.

' vIMPROVEMENT IN HARVESTER CUTTING APPARATUS.

Speciilicatron forming part` of Letters Patent No. 173,094, dated February l, 1876; application tiled Y December 16, 187?.

same, reference being had to the accompany@ ing drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 represents a portion of a cutting apparatus as arranged .for operation on a harvesting-machine. Fig. 2 represents'a longitudinal vertical section, taken through onejofv the guards orngers, and showing the cutter 4 as connected therewith. Fig. 3 represents the knife-bar with the rivet-holes for attaching the cutter-sections thereto. Fig. 4 represents a perspective View of the leger-plate connected with the guards, and over and against which the vibrating cutters Work.

Heretofore, in securing cutter or sickle sections to their bar, it has been customary to use two rivets to each section, but so placed at or near the edges of said sections as to make two rivet-holes through the knife-bar so near together as tovery much weaken said bar at its weakest part, and make it liable to bend or break, or necessitate its being madelarger and heavier than is requisite with a judicious disposition of the rivet-holes, so that they will not weaken said bar atp-articular parts thereof'. Where the knife-sections have been secured to the bar each by a single central rivet, the rivet-holes in lthe bar were near about equidistant, but the knife-sections being secured at a single point only, the rivet-holes simply weakened the bars, without any compensating stili'enin'g effect from the knife-sections, thereby rendering it necessary to in/crease the weight of the knifebar rather than -making it practicable to diminish such weight-a matter of great importance,in view of the jar and racking eli'ect produced by the necessarily rapid vibration of the knife-bar.

One of the objects of my in vcntion is to overcome the diliiculties recited; and to this end my invention consists,l first, in forming the rivet-holes in the knife-bar at equal distances apart, and combining with said bar knife-sections, provided each with tw'o rivet-holes, so

spaced as to exactly match any two adjacent holes in the knife-bar, thereby 'removing them tothe farthest practicable point from the adjoining edges of the sickle-sections, consistentl withuniting each section to the bar bytwo rivets, and the equidistant spacing of the rivetholes in said bar,^as' hereinafter explained'.

Myrinvention further consists in a legerplate, -the portion over which the vibrating cutters work being of steel, and the tail by which it is held to the finger and finger-bar being of malleable cast-iron riveted thereto, and both made substantially as hereinafter described. p y v To enable others skilled in the art to make and use myV invention, I will proceed to de scribe the same 'with reference' to the drawings. Y

In Fig. l, A represents thev finger-bar; and B the guards. or fingers, secured thereto in the usual well-known way. In the guards is placed a legerLplate, a, the tail or shank b of which projects under the finger-bar A to hold it securely in placeat the rear, while the point spaced as that they will match exactly any two of the holes in the knife or cutter bar U,

and the sections may, as now, abut against each other, so as to cover or nearly cover the knife-bar.

By making tberivet-holes in the bar G of uniform distances apart, no particular part of the bar is weakened more than any other part of it, asis the casewhen the rivets are put through near the edges of the sections, thus.

bringing two holes close together near to where the sections abut against each other, and where the bar is naturally the weakest and most liable to bend or break. The'portions of the knife-bar grasped by the sicklesections, with their two fastening-rivets each,

from the adjoining edges of the sections, and away from each other at the intermediate portions of the bar not stiened thereby, the full strength of the bar at that point is retained, rendering it practicable to reduce the weight `of the bar as a whole, whereas in the case of knife-sections united each by a single central rivet, no stitl'ening of any portion of the bar is effected, and the bar, as a whole, is Weakened by the rivet-holes, and is rendered the more liable to be lieXed and broken through said holes, which form the weakest points in the bar, making it necessary to increase rather than diminish the weight ot' the bar.

Aside from the advantages above recited, each sicklesection being made to exactly match any two adjacent rivet-holes in the bar,

any section may be applied at any point on the bar, and the bars and sections heilig uniformly drilled or perforated, any section may be used at any point upon any bar, rendering p it practicable, when desirable, to give the secy tions an intermediate position, adapting the bar toditi'erent machines, or to a change in the length of the pitinau, a function of which, nnder the usual mode of drilling the bar and applying' the sickle-sections, said sections are incapable.

I would state that am aware that legerplates have heretofore been made, some of cast-iron entirely, and some ot' steel entirely, and held in placeby the finger and finger-bar. These I do not claim; but

What I claim isl. In combination with a knife-bar, having its rivet-holes punched or drilled at equal distances apart, the sections or cutters punched or .drilled with two rivet-holes each, spaced to match said holes in the knife-bar, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. I also claim a leger-plate, composed of the steel plate a, and malleable cast-iron shank b riveted thereto, and extending under the finger-bar, as and for the purpose described and represented. 4

C. WHEELER, JR.

Witnesses CHAs. OBRIEN, Tnos. ToWNE. 

